Tim Hudson

Coming into the 2010 season, the Braves had two players who hoped to enter the Comeback Player of the Year race.

Tim Hudson missed the majority of the 2009 season after Tommy John surgery, and many wondered whether the Braves would resign him, as doing so would mean trading either Derek Lowe or Javier Vazquez.

In his late-season appearances, Hudson convinced the Braves that he was worth re-signing, and the team eventually traded away Vazquez (after failing to trade Lowe) in order to stay within the budget.

We are now two months into the season. While we are still a long way from the end of the season, those players who are in the MVP and Cy Young races are beginning to fall into place.

In the Cy Young races in particular, there are many candidates who are certainly worthy of the title with how they have been pitching so far. In the National League, there are 16 or so people that should be in the top ten.

The Washington Nationals made one of the best moves of spring training on March 20^th, they sent down Stephen Strasburg.

Having made the decision that the young phenom would start the season in Double A, the Nationals designated him for assignment, which caused the hype surrounding Strasburg to deflate like a punctured beach ball.

The Atlanta Braves posted a record of 86-76 last season, an improvement of 14 games over their 72-90 mark of 2008.

The ballclub made several changes this winter and heading into the new season, it appears that it may have to take a step back before it can take a step forward.

The biggest holes to fill will be the departure of RHP Javier Vazquez from the starting rotation and closer Rafael Soriano from the bullpen. Additionally, they’ll have to find replacements at first base (Adam LaRoche), second base (Kelly Johnson) and left field (Garrett Anderson).

Brian McCann came into today's game against the Philadelphia Phillies batting .440 with two homers, and Tim Hudson entered his fifth spring start with a 1.93 ERA and a 13-1 K/BB ratio.

With Hudson facing the tough Philadelphia lineup and McCann batting against tough, young left-hander J.A. Happ, it would have been easy to expect those numbers to come back down to Earth.

This will begin my 2010 MLB preview. I intend to touch every team in the major leagues in installments by division. The lineups I provide will be what I predict will be the most productive for each team for the MAJORITY of the season (e.g., Jason Heyward will be listed as the Braves RF even though he may not begin the season as the starter).

I will also provide the stereotypical letter grade to each team's lineup, rotation, bullpen, and depth/bench. Though it is trite, I think all baseball fans can identify with the letter grade system.

I would like to begin this article by saying that I've recently joined "BleacherReport" and I will continuously be writing and commenting on the Atlanta Braves. I would sum up the braves off season as high-risk high-reward.

With economics playing a larger role in how teams are constructed - here's my 25 players who are going to be on the Braves active roster leaving Spring Training and in the dugout on Opening Day 2010. There are a couple of additions, that, by the September, may bring the Braves back to the playoffs and possibly a World Series title in Bobby Cox's final season.

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If you believe Dave O'Brien, Mark Bowman, and the ever-so-unreliable Ken Rosenthal, Tim Hudson is set to sign a three-year extension with the Atlanta Braves in the neighborhood of $27 million.

I don't know about you, but that's a big relief.

Locking up an elite (provided he looks like his seven starts at the end of '09) two or three starter for under $10 million is always good.

When you add in the fact that he's locked up for under the salary of two of your potential off-season trade chips (Derek Lowe and Javier Vazquez), it's even better.

This article is the last in a six part series discussing the players on the Atlanta Braves' 25-man roster that will be free agents this offseason.